RacerXGTO
New Member
- Joined
- January 26, 2013
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- California
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1996 Ranger 4 Banger
I make this entry for posterity. I've also been lurking around here and have found a great source of help working on my own Ranger, perhaps my findings will help others as you've helped me.
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Problem - No power to ignition switch. Cab lights work, headlights work, everything else works, but absolutely no power to the ignition switch for ignition or accessories.
Checking the basics - Fuses, OK. All fuses have ohms continuity, power is getting to the Ignition 50A engine bay fuse box. All the fuses in the PCM(interior fuse box) check out OK and power readings are taken by the fuse box. Fusible links and wires to relay check out OK
Checking the ignition switch under the steering wheel -
Using a power meter, no power readings can be made from ANY of the four hot yellow wires.
When I got to this point, I was about ready to go thermonuclear. My hatred toward Ford was about to go off the scale. All I could envision was something buried deep in the wire harness that required the entire dashboard to be pulled out just to get to a stupid short. But then I thought, forget it, I'll just run a 10 gauge wire from the battery, fuse it with the 50Amp fuse and run it right to the switch. Another part of me said, jiggle something and see what happens. I jiggled the ignition harness wire and heard some arcing noise inside the harness. Ah! Ok, so this may be within reach. I disconnected the battery (-) and began carefully cutting off the harness wrap back exposing all the yellow hot wires and low and behold the culprit was found. You just cannot make this stuff up. In all of Ford's brilliance, they hot crimped the four switch wires together and then wrapped the hot ignition wire from the fuse box together inside the harness. No bridging block, no connector, just wrapped. And as many miles of bumps, potholes would have it, eventually it came undone and ceased all power to the switch. I made the repair as shown in the pictures, wrapped my wire lug good so it wouldn't ground out on the steering column by accident. I took a Dremmel wire wheel attachment and brushed all the copper wire good. They were all crudded up with that sticky wire wrap, so I wanted to ensure a solid electrical connection with bare copper touching bare copper before sliding on the wire lug nut and sealing it shut. Double checked my work, reconnected the battery, started right up.
_____
Problem - No power to ignition switch. Cab lights work, headlights work, everything else works, but absolutely no power to the ignition switch for ignition or accessories.
Checking the basics - Fuses, OK. All fuses have ohms continuity, power is getting to the Ignition 50A engine bay fuse box. All the fuses in the PCM(interior fuse box) check out OK and power readings are taken by the fuse box. Fusible links and wires to relay check out OK
Checking the ignition switch under the steering wheel -
Using a power meter, no power readings can be made from ANY of the four hot yellow wires.
When I got to this point, I was about ready to go thermonuclear. My hatred toward Ford was about to go off the scale. All I could envision was something buried deep in the wire harness that required the entire dashboard to be pulled out just to get to a stupid short. But then I thought, forget it, I'll just run a 10 gauge wire from the battery, fuse it with the 50Amp fuse and run it right to the switch. Another part of me said, jiggle something and see what happens. I jiggled the ignition harness wire and heard some arcing noise inside the harness. Ah! Ok, so this may be within reach. I disconnected the battery (-) and began carefully cutting off the harness wrap back exposing all the yellow hot wires and low and behold the culprit was found. You just cannot make this stuff up. In all of Ford's brilliance, they hot crimped the four switch wires together and then wrapped the hot ignition wire from the fuse box together inside the harness. No bridging block, no connector, just wrapped. And as many miles of bumps, potholes would have it, eventually it came undone and ceased all power to the switch. I made the repair as shown in the pictures, wrapped my wire lug good so it wouldn't ground out on the steering column by accident. I took a Dremmel wire wheel attachment and brushed all the copper wire good. They were all crudded up with that sticky wire wrap, so I wanted to ensure a solid electrical connection with bare copper touching bare copper before sliding on the wire lug nut and sealing it shut. Double checked my work, reconnected the battery, started right up.
